Tips to Build Brand Awareness

What is brand awareness and how do you build it? In some ways, brand awareness is a straightforward concept. It’s a question of how aware are potential customers and existing customers of your brand? How familiar are they with your products and/or services, do they know your logo, and how do people feel when they come across your brand? Read on to learn more about brand awareness, how to increase it, and how to incorporate these strategies into your content strategy.

In today’s world, brands are constantly competing for consumers’ attention. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with content, whether in the form of blogs, advertisements, videos, news articles, status updates, images, etc. How do you get your content through this stream of content and get your brand in front of consumers? And what can you do to make sure that when consumers see your content that they start to associate good feelings with your brand? Here are some tips for developing the right brand awareness.

Logos & Colors

Everyone is familiar with the logos of major corporations, like Mountain Dew green and McDonalds red. You may already have a brand logo, but are you branding your online content in your online marketing campaigns as well? Be sure to brand your social media account pages with your brand logo and colors as well. Additionally, is your company website branded out with the right colors and images? You want your website to be easy to navigate and easy to recognize. That way consumers will know how to spot your content right away.

Direct Marketing

In this online age, it can be easy to overlook direct marketing strategies. One way to reach new potential customers and to stay at the top of their minds is to use direct marketing like mailers and postcards. For example, when a new Planet Fitness opens up in the area, residents will receive a mailer with information like pricing, hours, and the date of the grand opening. This brings in customers that may never have heard of you otherwise and it targets potential customers in the area.

Referrals& Word of Mouth

Marketers know that one of the best ways to get your name in front of audiences is to encourage current customers to refer your brand to their family and friends. Who better to sing your praises than your loyal customers and fans? For example, the company Blue Apron (a meal kit delivery service) allows customers to give a friend a free trial of the service. As a result, some of those friends may decide to sign up for the service after they get a chance to try the product. Recommendations from friends and family hold much more weight than a company that you have never tried before.

Get More Reviews

Encourage your customers to write reviews on your products and/or services online. Today’s consumers are more likely to research products at length before buying them. So if there aren’t many reviews on your brand on websites like Amazon, Facebook, Yelp, and other retail websites, then potential customers may be less likely to make a purchase. To solve this problem, ask your customers to leave reviews. If they are happy with your brand and your customer service, then they may be passionate enough to share that with others. This positive feedback is one way to give other customers an idea of who you are and what you have to offer.

Giveaways & Giveaways

People love free stuff, right? But it’s the way that you give away free stuff that can set you apart from the competition. Done well, a promotion and/or giveaway can be an excellent opportunity to increase brand awareness and make your brand stand out. Run a contest on social media with a fun element to get people excited. Below is cooking quiz giveaway published by the blog The Pioneer Woman.

To participate, users had to submit answers to the quiz. The first user to answer all of the questions correctly received the first place prize of a KitchenAid Mixer. Followers of the blog (a popular cooking website) would be excited for the chance to win a new kitchen appliance that they could use while making the featured recipes. That excitement is then associated with the brand as well.

Promotions are also an effective method for improving brand awareness. Giving customers a deal encourages them to visit your store, make a purchase on your website, or use a free trial of your service. Groupons and Living Social deals are an excellent example of effective promotions. A new restaurant might increase awareness of their presence by offering customers a Groupon special. Even if the restaurant loses money on the promotion, the word-of-mouth and awareness may be worth the investment and marketing efforts.

Influencer Collaborations

To increase brand awareness and get yourself in front of new audiences, influencer marketing is one of the most popular marketing strategies right now. Partnering with an influencer involves asking someone with a big online following to take part in a collaboration that benefits both participants. Bloggers, YouTubers, Instagram personalities, and more are examples of social media influencers; these content creators have large followings and loyal fans. For example, a makeup company may collaborate with an Influencer on Instagram and ask them to try their product and document the experience on Instagram. When participants tag each other and share each other’s content, both parties benefit from the experience. The hope is that getting in front of these audiences will generate more sales and loyal customers.

Up Your Social Media Game

Users, especially on Instagram, are engaging more with brands. Social media is no longer a place just for friends to keep in touch. In fact, it’s completely normal for a brand to reach out to followers and fans through comments. Ask your followers to share your content, to retweet you, and to engage with you. Make users feel involved and a part of the conversation. Simultaneously, post fresh, appealing content that encourages users to be aware of you and what you have to offer. Live videos are a popular method for allowing users to see your brand behind-the-scenes, to share news, to feature new products, and to post footage of events. One thing is for certain. To stay relevant and competitive on the social media scene, you need to post visually engaging content as well as textual content. Videos and images are more effective on social media than text alone.

Blogging

One way to get in front of an audience is to publish a blog that posts valuable content. If your content is valuable and relevant, then your customers and potential customers are more likely to click through and read it. As you continue to publish engaging content, then your followers will begin to see you as a trustworthy source of information. For example, customers for an interior designer may be interested in blogs covering the latest trends in home design. Customers of an electronics store may be interested in learning about the latest gadgets and technology.

Above is an example of a blog published by the retailer Bed, Bath, & Beyond. You may think that Bed, Bath, & Beyond customers are just interested in furnishing their homes and buying gadgets for their kitchens. But think again. Here, Bed, Bath, & Beyond reaches out to their customers who are health conscious by sharing information on the wellness products offered in the store. This particular blog post features a juicer, balance trainer, chiller lunch bag, blender bottle and more. Anyone with an interest in improving their personal wellness will be excited to learn more about what Bed, Bath, & Beyond has to offer and what its customers are recommending.

Use these tips to increase brand awareness and to become an authoritative online presence. As you improve, you’ll notice an increase in sales and in brand loyalty.

Square 1 Group is a boutique web development firm that is dedicated to crafting personalized, professional website design for both desktop and mobile devices. Our wide range of satisfied clients receive enjoy services related to Search Engine Optimization, online marketing content, lead generation, social media marketing, and more. Feel free to contact us today for a consultation.